1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation system, an information processor, and a computer-readable recording medium. Particularly, the present invention relates to an image formation system, an information processor, and a computer-readable recording medium to select an image formation apparatus that is to execute a process in an image formation system constituted of at least one image formation apparatus and at least one information processor connected to each other via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image formation system having one or more image formation apparatuses and one or more information processors connected to each other via a network, there are known various approaches and methods to select an image formation apparatus for processing when a document is to be transmitted from a certain information processor.
Print data that is the subject of processing by the image formation apparatus is generated by a printer driver installed in, for example, an information processor. The printer driver generates print data to be transmitted to the image formation apparatus.
Specifically, the printer driver converts a plotting instruction issued by an operating system or an application program of an information processor into page description language that can be processed by the image formation apparatus, and transfers the plotting instruction defined in page description language to the image formation apparatus.
Reflecting the significant improvement in performance of information processors, the processing time may be reduced by generating a bit map image at the information processor. In view of the foregoing, some printer drivers transfer the plotting instruction issued by the operating system or application program of the information processor into a bit map image and then transmit the same to the image formation apparatus.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-328776 discloses the approach of transferring predetermined print data to an image formation apparatus by a plurality of printer drivers to virtually execute processing in order to select the optimum printer driver by comparing the length of the processing time required for execution. This approach allows the printer driver with a short processing time to be selected without having to cause the image formation apparatus to actually execute the printing process.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-199153 discloses the approach of allowing the user to identify which image formation apparatus is appropriate for execution of processing. Specifically, in the case where the image formation apparatus selected to conduct a certain process is absent of the capability required to execute the certain process, that selected image formation apparatus searches for another image formation apparatus in the system that is capable of executing that certain process, and provides a message about an image formation apparatus capable of processing, if any, on the display.
Some of the recent image formation apparatuses may have the so-called direct print function incorporated. This direct print function allows documents in the PDF (Portable Document Format) or TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) to be directly received and processed without having to be converted into a plotting instruction defined in page description language by the printer driver or to be transferred into a bit map image.
In such an image formation apparatus with the direct print function, the user can instruct the image formation apparatus to directly print out the relevant document by dragging and dropping a displayed icon corresponding to the document that is to be printed out to the displayed icon corresponding to the image formation apparatus.
However, there may be some image formation apparatuses constituting the system that does not accommodate all the file formats including the difference in version.
Further, even if the image formation apparatus corresponds to the file formats, it is expected that the processing capability with respect to each file format will differ for every image formation apparatus. For example, when the user designates a certain image formation apparatus to execute direct printing in view of favorable operability, it is possible that the time required for execution will be unexpectedly time-consuming.